Today I the first day to explore the city of Seattle with my friend that I am staying with who lives here. Even though the day was a little wet, there is still plenty to see and do.
Seattle City Pass
There were some attractions that I want to see, and most of them were included with the Seattle City Pass. I found that the Seattle City Pass offered for me the best value for money. It included access to just six attractions and saved a reasonable amount on the individual entry prices. But unlike some other attraction passes it just included the attractions I was hoping to visit and not an endless list that you never get to.
The attractions that are included in the pass were The Pacific Science Center, The Seattle Aquarium, Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum, Seattle Space Needle and Argosy Harbour Cruise. The sixth inclusion is a choice between The Museum of Flight or Woodland Park Zoo.
**Update May 2017** The pass inclusions have changed slightly since I visited in 2011. There are now five attractions included with two being an either or choice. The pass as of this update costs $79 (USD) and saves you around 45% off full price entry per adult. For more information visit the Seattle City Pass website.
Argosy Harbour Cruise
The photos of the harbour cruise are not the greatest due to the inclement weather. But it was still a great option being that you are inside on the tour boat and the rain did not hamper seeing most of the sights. The only part that was not all that visible was the city skyline.
Throughout the cruise, we could see many of the ships visiting the harbour in Seattle. These included grain ships, tug boats, icebreakers and container ships. It was possible to head outside to get a photo if there was something of interest to photograph.
Seattle Aquarium
Another great indoor activity for the day turned out to be visiting the Seattle Aquarium. Although this was not on my must visit list, since it was included in the pass it was worth taking a look. From my impression, it is a little smaller than some of the other Aquariums I have visited. With both Melbourne Aquarium and Vancouver Aquarium appearing to be bigger with more displays. But this is just my impression; it might not be right.
There were some interesting exhibits, the first one which caught my eye is a squid they have on display. However, being that it was feeding time, there was a rather large crowd assembled and made it impossible to get a photo. Once feeding time was over it was also not possible due to the location in the tank the squid moved to.
Even though it is a smaller space, there are some great displays. Overall I found the visit quite enjoyable, and it might have been even more so if there were fewer kids. However, with this sort of attraction that is not likely to happen most of the time.
There was some beautiful coral in some of the displays, and I do think that I managed to find Nemo.
Rest of the day
After a busy sort of morning, we made our way to Pike Place for lunch at a restaurant named Lowell’s. Their menu did seem heavily focused on seafood, which I suppose based on the location is no surprise. But I did manage to see the menu had an Angus Beef Cheese Burger which I enjoyed. We even had someone that want to join us for lunch, but a window stopped this from happening thankfully, or we might have lost a few chips.
The friend I am staying with lives in Issaquah around 15 miles east of Seattle. So to avoid the afternoon commuter traffic we made a stop around the Capitol Hill area for coffee and a good catch up chat. So today turned out to be a great day even with the rain that could have spoiled it. There are some more great stops on the agenda for tomorrow using the Seattle City Pass and look forward to sharing these with you tomorrow.
Liz Irvine
April 3, 2011 at 9:27 pmi wonder what was going through his ead watching you eat that burger…’Lousy bastard’ should at least throw out some of the crumbs… come outside… i’llsort you out ‘down under boy!’